Now that I've taken up the pipe I want to start putting stuff away for later times. I smoke cigars too and tend to age them extensively before smoking, I have cigars that have been sitting in my humi for 8 years now, even some there were already aged 10+ years before they made it to market, so by the time I get to it it'll be 20 years aged. Since cigars are all roughly made with components I haven't seen any where the age was in anyway a negative. But with pipe tobacco most blends aren't "straight up" purely natural forms of dried/fermented/aged tobaccos. Aromatics obviously have additives. English have latakia which is essentially smoked tobacco which is basically and additive. Cavendish is steamed and pressure cured (not exactly natural).

From what I've gathered flavored aros don't age well and will start to decline when would that point be?

Straight VA, VaPers and Burleys can be stored indefinitely and will only get better, correct?

Latakia blends? what's the optimal storage time before their quality declines? if ever?

So much good (and personal perspective) information out there, and I'm sure others will pipe in. The general rules as I understand them is Virginia and Va and Vapor blends age very well for decades. Burley doesn't seem to improve much if at all and can peak out at some point. Latakias and Orientals seem to gain a little with a few years, but not as much as Virginias. Most aromatics seem to degrade over time.

But as so many tobacco blends today are just that, blends of several types of tobacco, if they contain Virginias, it will probably help. I've found that nothing seems to degrade in just a few years, and as I store mostly Virginas, age seems to help.

Natch

Good questions!

Someone here (I think maybe Yak) advised on FVF at least 2 years minimum so is that with all Virginia tobacco or is some aged enough after one year? Will one year help at all or will it take 2 years minimum to do anything at all?

Skip

There was a pipe tobacco aging FAQ on the 'net. It's been taken down, but I've a pdf of most of it as of March 2010. PM me if interested.

Buddy

Oh great after reading some I need some advice.. I have 3 tins of Dan's Blue Note in the basement in taped tins.. About a month or two ago I packed them so I was wondering if they just degrade with age being an Aromatic I should not waste the time with them and start to smoke em up one tin at a time.. Anyone with confirmation on this idea ??